Monday, August 6, 2012

Two Languages and Two Personalities - trashing out a new blog and the startling discovery of another personality...

It's you! It's no one else. He just sounds a little different, that's all...

I have been busy this weekend, sunshine. I am trying to concoct a blog in my native Bahasa Melayu (Malay) language. It is funny how we appear to have different personalities in one body, and think and write in different languages. It is not as unusual as some people may think, and I have an impressive royal personage from the past who said something along a similar vein...

I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse

(Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, 1500-1558 a.d.)

If you can understand Malay, you might want to read it. It's entitled 'Chembul' and can be accessed by Clicking Here.

My posting in my native Malay is very different from the Almanac. The language is err... how shall I say it... replete with marketplace language (bahasa pasar), informal and often crass. It is very crude with little subtlety, almost non-existent prose and even my late sainted mother would be reluctant to consider it a fine piece of writing. And to top off this strange menagerie of language, I have adopted a different personality too, for I am known as 'Gue' in this new blog. Let me tell you that this is a startling surprise even to myself.

I am not sure whether I can keep up two blogs in my life. As it is, I am stealing time between chores and work to handle the Almanac, so perhaps I won't be maintaining Chembul. We will see...

Nothing to report today, sunshine. Just the strange thoughts that writers think in their tiresome search to find their voice... In whatever and however many languages they are 'fluent' in.